Research obsession: Medical Students for Choice

I’m going to show my political underpants briefly (har har. briefly.) and write about Medical Students for Choice.

Lately I’ve tried to keep my politics off of this website out of respect for the wonderful diversity of people who have taken librarianship as an identity.*

msfctshirt1.jpgHowever, I promised to keep you updated on the research topics I pursue in my off hours.

One of the topics I follow obsessively is the state of reproductive law in the US. I attended the March for Women’s Lives in 2004, and I came away with a new awareness of the scope and diversity of topics affecting women’s health, including poverty, contraceptive access, sex education, sexual violence, racism, and medical research, to name a few. The topic of women’s health goes well beyond the ethics and philosophy of the abortion debate.

One of the groups I most enjoyed seeing were the Medical Students for Choice, young mostly female medical students dedicated to raising awareness of the need to train abortion providers among the medical community.

msfc.jpgImagine a sea of women.

Imagine the mall in Washington DC on a warm sunny day. Imagine the grass and the voices. Everywhere you look there are signs, women, booths, friends, groups, people walking, people sitting, young women, old women, men of all ages and stripes, people of every color, signs from every US state and territory.

Imagine a group of women wearing white lab coats with stethoscopes around their necks, walking in small groups, smiling, talking, and holding signs saying “Medical Students for Choice.”

Some wore badges saying “Future abortion provider.” Some carried signs showing the number of women and young girls who die or are injured from unsafe abortions.

It was like watching a herd of beautiful gazelles as they walked through the chaos of the largest protest in US history. These women snapped with intelligence, kindness, and competence.

Seeing them made me stronger.

I don’t write this to inspire the same old arguments among friends. We can all agree that women’s physical safety is important, regardless of our deeper beliefs.

I love you guys. I’ll get back to writing trivia soon, I promise!

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*Yes, I think librarianship is an identity as well as a profession. More on this later.

3 Replies to “Research obsession: Medical Students for Choice”

  1. Thanks for you support of Med Students for Choice! I was active in MSFC during my 4 years of medical school and was at the March with you that great day in DC. Now I am a physician (as of a couple weeks ago!) in an OBGYN residency and I will be providing abortions through residency and in my practice. MSFC – and people like yourself – ispired me to do so. Thank you!!

  2. Your writing (and blog) is lovely – your gazelles metaphor here is so sweet: I know just what you mean! Hurrah for pro-choice physicians (and future physicians)!!

  3. Just to let you know we’ve been circulating the link to your blog around our student-leader listserve. (A certain librarian friend of mine let me know about it.) Your post is fabulous, thank you so much! I hope others leave a note if they get a chance to come visit!

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